As horrified Buffalo Bills fans watched safety Damar Hamlin collapse and receive lifesaving treatment Monday night on the field at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, many had flashbacks to the last time a Bills player suffered a traumatic injury during a game.
A thousand miles away at his Houston-area home, Kevin Everett had the same reaction.
"It brought me all the way back to that point, my injury. It really hit home," he said late Tuesday in a 40-minute phone interview that included his wife, Wiande.
It was just over 15 years ago, in the opening game of the 2007 season, when Everett suffered a spinal cord injury while attempting to make a tackle on the second-half kickoff.
Everett was initially paralyzed from the neck down. But thanks to timely medical care and determined rehabilitation, Everett regained his mobility.
Though the injury ended his career, and its painful effects linger to this day, Kevin and Wiande Everett say they can only pray that Hamlin has the same chance at a recovery that he was given.
“He has to remember just to not give up and take each day at a time,” Wiande Everett said. “Take the good days for the good days, the bad days for the bad days, and just continue to persevere. Because I've watched my husband do that.”
Kevin Everett said he was watching the Bills-Bengals contest on TV when, around 8:55 p.m. Monday, Hamlin fell straight back after tackling Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins.
At first, Everett said, it wasn't clear how badly Hamlin was hurt, because he could have had the wind knocked out of him or suffered a dizzy spell.
But after Everett saw medical personnel rush onto to the field and as cameras panned to the pained, fearful expressions on the faces of Hamlin's teammates, he said he realized the gravity of what had occurred.
"We go through injuries all the time," Everett said. "You know when it's serious and when it's just something minor. So, in the distress on their faces, the sadness, guys collapsing and just breaking out in tears, it was really heartfelt."
This reminded Everett of his teammates' reactions when he later watched a video of his own injury.
Hamlin was on the field for half an hour before the ambulance took him on his way to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, a Level 1 trauma center, where he remains in critical condition in the intensive care unit. The Bills later revealed Hamlin had gone into cardiac arrest and his heartbeat was restored on the field.
"When I saw him pull away it was a relief knowing that he was going to the right place to get the proper attention that he needed," Everett said. "It brought me back to the day of my injury, me leaving in an ambulance that day knowing that I'm going somewhere to, possibly, be restored somewhat to normalcy again."
Everett said he has received a number of messages from friends who checked in with him after Hamlin's injury, which has received nationwide attention. He said the first former teammate to contact him was Jason Peters, who played offensive tackle for the Bills from 2004 to 2008.
"He was one of the guys I was closer with. So it wasn't a shocker that he would reach out and just check on me because this just went full circle," Everett said.
Wiande Everett had an emotional reaction to seeing Hamlin's injury.
"It was devastating. I mean, I had chills. I just fell to the ground and just started praying, immediately started praying for him, for his family, because I know the feeling," she said. "Because we've been through it before."
Hamlin is 24, one year younger than Everett was at the time of his injury.
A native of Port Arthur, Texas, 90 miles outside Houston, Everett was a 2005 draft pick of the Bills. He was a tight end who also played special teams when, on Sept. 9, 2007, he raced down the field as the Bills kicked off to begin the second half.
Everett collided violently with Denver Broncos kick returner Domenik Hixon.
He was stabilized on the field by the team's training staff and doctors at Ralph Wilson Stadium and rushed to Millard Fillmore Hospital for emergency surgery to repair a severe dislocation of his third and fourth vertebra.
Doctors feared Everett would never walk again because of the injury, which was described as life-threatening.
However, Everett quickly improved after the surgery and had some movement in his extremities before being transported to a Houston rehabilitation facility.
To this day, he praises the emergency treatment he received at the stadium, at the hospital and in the weeks and months afterward, notably the spine surgery accompanied by the innovative use of induced hypothermia by Dr. Andrew Cappuccino.
"You can never thank those people enough," Everett said.
While Hamlin's mother and some of his family were at Paycor Stadium on Monday night, Wiande Everett wasn't watching the game when her future husband was injured.
She was driving to Everett's mother's house when, she said, she received a call from a cousin with the terrible news.
One key difference between then and now is the Bills and Broncos continued to play after Everett was taken off the field.
"I just know that's the business. The game will go on, even after I'm done," he said.
In contrast, the Bills, Bengals and league officials opted to stop Monday night's game, which has not yet been rescheduled. Many fans wonder how the team will be able to focus on football after what they saw on the field in Cincinnati.
"It's going to be tough for the guys to move forward from this. And especially now, because there's so many uncertainties about Damar," Everett said.
Everett said he hopes Higgins doesn't blame himself for what happened to Hamlin. Hixon was guilt-ridden after their collision and Everett said he tried to allay Hixon's concerns in occasional phone calls.
"'It was a freak accident, man. It happened. Yeah, thank you for being supportive of me during this. But I need you to just focus on doing your job so you can be the best professional ballplayer you can be for you and your family,'" Everett recalled telling Hixon.
For Everett, it was difficult to accept losing the ability to play in the NFL.
"Life after football, it wasn't easy," Wiande Everett said. "Because this was his job, something he used to go into every day and just loved to do"
It took a long time, Wiande Everett said, for her husband to be able to watch NFL games on TV.
Kevin Everett qualified for an NFL pension and for league disability payments for the game injury he sustained.
Now 40 years old, he said he can walk but he can't jog or run. He endures frequent pain, for which he takes medication, and will for the rest of his life.
"I will be feeling good one day and then the next six days, I could be feeling terrible," Everett said. "So for a lot of things associated with catastrophic spinal injury, spasms, nerve pain, back pain, leg pain, there's a lot of pain associated with this."
It's difficult for his wife to see firsthand.
"You're used to seeing this agile guy just moving around, being able to run, and you just want to take his pain away. And you see him, he's such a strong man. Because when you see him, he doesn't look like he has anything wrong with him," Wiande Everett said. "But he's truly in pain. And just seeing his strength, it keeps me going."
Still, Kevin Everett said he has no regrets about playing football, even considering where the sport left him today.
“If I could do it all over again, it's gonna sound crazy, but I would. I know you knew I would say that. Because I had a passion for it. I loved it,” Everett said. “I almost passed away on the job, right? But that's just the nature of the game. Severe, violent game. Everybody knows that. You try to be as careful as you can, without trying to worry about not getting hurt.”
Asked whether he would let his son, Kevin Jr., now 18 months old, play football, Everett said yes. Everett said his own mother didn’t want him to play the sport but gave in because she saw how much it meant to him.
“I look at my son every day. And I think what do I say if he comes to me and asks to play the game?” Everett said. “And I answer to myself if he's passionate about it, he loves it, I can't see myself turning him down.”
His wife hesitated.
“Right now, I'm not comfortable. Honestly, I'm not. I would say, play basketball or baseball right now,” said Wiande Everett, adding her decision might be different if her son cared deeply about the sport.
The Everetts, like the rest of the extended Bills community, have no idea what Hamlin's future will be.
“When you’re in that moment, when you're the one laying down in the bed, having to deal with this situation, with your health goals,” Everett said, “mentally it's tough to really receive the positive support from people. Because it’s just so uncertain.
“But what I would tell him is to keep your faith. Trust in the process. Know that you're not alone.”
